The Commission for Unity and Racial Equality (CURE) are holding a series of conversations about race to coincide with the visit of the schooner.

The freedom schooner will be in Bermuda until May 29. ?The port visit is intended to foster unity among peoples of diverse racial and cultural backgrounds, and to promote the legacies of leadership, cooperation, perseverance and social injustice inherent to the Amistad Incident of 1839,? said Myra Virgil, executive officer of CURE. ?Bermuda will be its first international port.?

Ms Virgil said that CUREwill collaborate with teams from the Ministries of Tourism and Transport, Community Affairs and Sport and Education and Development (referred to as the Bermuda Local Port Organising Committee) in bringing the events that surround visit to fruition.

Each team hosts or sponsors a series of events during the port visit. As part of the many activities surrounding this visit, CURE will host four forums under the general theme that conversations on equality and race are ?conversations worth having?.

The Conversation Forums are a series of public events aimed at increasing race awareness and promoting leadership and individual action on addressing racial inequality.

?The ?Conversation on Race? forums define and emphasise the connection between and CURE?s mission,? said Ms Virgil. ?CURE?s mission is to make provisions for: equality of opportunity; good race relations between people of different races; and the elimination of racial discrimination and institutional racial discrimination.?

The programme kicks off on May 19th with a Bermuda Leaders? Power Breakfast, ?A Vision for Conversations on Race Equality? at La Coquille restaurant at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute (BUEI). The next day there will a Bermuda community leaders? forum, ?Facilitating Community Conversations on Race and Equality? at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club.

On May 21st there will be a Bermuda youth leaders? forum and showcase called ?Continuing the conversations on race equality, awareness and empowerment? at the Carriage House in St. George?s and on May 22 there will be ?The Conversation Project, Bermuda? at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club. To sign up, or for more information go to www.cure.bm or call us at 296-0613.